Removing the Carburetors on a ZX-6R

Warning

I am not a mechanic or a representative of any motorcycle or tool manufacturer or anything else official. This page is only my notes on doing this procedure myself. Although I believe what I have documented here is correct, I make no promises and you do this at your own risk.

Objective

The 4 carburetors in this bike are joined into a single “carburetor assembly” that can easily be removed in one piece. You might do this for several reasons: to access the spark plugs and valves, which are under the carbs, to more easily access the choke and throttle cables for lubrication, or to actually service the carbs.

Required

Tools Required

  • Rear stand (recommended)
  • Hex wrenches

Difficulties & Warnings

Some difficulties could be:

  • Getting dirt, or dropping a part, into the carburetors;
  • Dealing with dribbled gas.
  • Confusing where the many hoses go when it’s time to reassemble (label them!)

Procedure

Putting the bike on a rear stand makes this job much easier by leveling the bike and holding it steady.

First you must remove the gas tank and remove the air cleaner assembly. Then:

With the tank and airbox off, the carburetor assembly is mounted on top of the engine head.
At the back of the unit, disconnect the electrical connector (yellow) and the fuel hose (green).

Careful: when you disconnect that fuel hose, there is a tiny fuel filter inside the end of the hose. You can see it on my fingers here. Don’t lose it, and remember to re-install it when you are reassembling everything later.

I’ve had some people write me to say they have no such filter. I think maybe it’s just on Canadian models. So just watch out for it.

At the front of the unit, disconnect the two vacuum connectors shown here. Note I usually label hoses and connectors with a white felt pen to aid reassembly.
Remove the vacuum canister from the front of the hoses, by twisting it sideways.
Now the hard part. The unit is held in place by 4 clamps, one holding each carb into the air intake of its corresponding valve.
The only thing hard is that the screws to loosen these clamps are really hard to see — they’re tucked in under the carbs. I’ve circled one in yellow here. You can see them better in a photo below after we get the unit off.
Loosen each of the 4 clamps with a hex key.
The carb unit can now be pulled away from the valves with a tug and a twist.
Here are those clamp screws (yellow). Also shown here are the choke cable and the throttle cables (green).
If you were only doing this to get to the cables, you can stop now. Here is the connection for the throttle cables.
If you need to actually remove the unit, disconnect the choke and throttle cables, and lift the unit out.
Here’s the engine head with the carburetor unit removed.

21 comments

  1. Hi pal I’ve disco all the tubes cables I’ve one in either side at back that seam to be plumbed into the water pump is this right cheers Alex

    1. How do you have fuel coming from the vent hose? The only way you could have that happen is if the fuel pressure is so high that it is venting with air.

  2. I have a serious question… Do you use thread lock on the screws when putting the carbs neck together?

    I didn’t and now I’m worried the bikes going to fall apart 🙁

    1. I didn’t. There didn’t seem to be any on the screws and the service manual didn’t call for it. If you’re worried, use a little – can’t hurt (as long as you use Blue, which is removeable with a little effort).

  3. Hi ya, great steps. I wanted to ask what hex tool can you recommend to loosen the 4 clamps holding the carbs down?

  4. Very good tutorial, with your explanation i will remove the carburetor to maintain them, thanks.

  5. muy buen tutorial, con tu explicacion logre quitar los carburadores para darles mantenimiento, gracias.
    Very good tutorial, with your explanation remove the carburetor to maintain them, thanks.

  6. Hey can you tell me where the “vent carb” hose goes when it goes through the hole to the front of the bike?

  7. Im having trouble reconnecting all my hoses after putting the carb and air filter back on.

  8. Disco choke by removing clamp on carb then remove end of choke cable from end of choke slide (similar to taking the cable off a bicycle brake).

    Disco throttle by opening throttle body at the handgrip. Inside, disco cable end from grip. This gives some play at the pulley end to take the ends off the pulley, just like taking off the choke cable and how you disco’d them at the handgrip.

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